Noble Energy Inc. announced on Sunday that one of its exploratory wells off the coast of Israel had discovered three enormous underwater gas reservoirs.

The reservoirs are about 50 miles off the coast of the northern Israel port city of Haifa, and could mark the largest natural gas find in history, according to Yitzhak Tshuva, whose Delek Group Ltd. is one of the owners of the well.

Tshuva told Army Radio that the find could transform the Israeli economy.

"We will no longer be dependent [on foreign sources] for our gas, and will even export," said Tshuva. "We are dealing with inconceivably huge quantities; Israel now has a solution for the future generations."

Israeli Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer described the discovery as "historic."